Stay up to date with notifications from The Independent

Notifications can be managed in browser preferences.

Doctor Strange 2 tops US box office for third week as Top Gun looms

Doctor Strange and his multiverse got to linger a little longer atop the weekend box office while Tom Cruise waits in the wings

Maanya Sachdeva
Monday 23 May 2022 06:27 BST
Tom Cruise helps Kate Middleton up steps at Top Gun premiere.mp4

Your support helps us to tell the story

From reproductive rights to climate change to Big Tech, The Independent is on the ground when the story is developing. Whether it's investigating the financials of Elon Musk's pro-Trump PAC or producing our latest documentary, 'The A Word', which shines a light on the American women fighting for reproductive rights, we know how important it is to parse out the facts from the messaging.

At such a critical moment in US history, we need reporters on the ground. Your donation allows us to keep sending journalists to speak to both sides of the story.

The Independent is trusted by Americans across the entire political spectrum. And unlike many other quality news outlets, we choose not to lock Americans out of our reporting and analysis with paywalls. We believe quality journalism should be available to everyone, paid for by those who can afford it.

Your support makes all the difference.

Marvel‘s Doctor Strange in the Multiverse of Madness was the top-earning US film of the weekend for the third consecutive week, according to studio estimates.

Figures showed that the movie earnt a total of $31.6m (£25.2m) across 4,534 North American theatres on the weekend beginning Friday (20 May), as global box office earnings crossed the $800m (£637.6m) mark.

Sam Raimi’s Doctor Strange 2 was the first Marvel release this year, and follows the success of Tom Holland’s Spider-Man: No Way Home in December 2021.

Doctor Strange 2, starring Benedict Cumberbatch in the title role of Dr Stephen Strange, is likely to be displaced by Tom Cruise’sTop Gun: Maverick upon its release on Friday 27 May – nearly 40 years since the original.

During his whirlwind appearance at the Cannes film festival last week, where Top Gun: Maverick had its European premiere, Cruise was asked whether he had considered debuting the sequel on streaming platforms when the pandemic continued pushing back its release date.

“That was not going to happen ever,” Cruise said. “I make movies for the big screen.”

Following Doctor Strange in the Multiverse of Madness on the list, Downtown Abbey: A New Era took $16m in ticket sales from 3,820 theaters across the region on its opening weekend,

Holdover family films The Bad Guys and Sonic the Hedgehog took the third and fourth spots, with the former earning $6.1m (£4.8m) in its fifth week. Sonic 2 earned $3.9m (£3.1m) in the seventh week since its release.

Meanwhile, Everything Everywhere All At Once is still going strong even nine weeks after its release. The A24 film picked up an additional $3.3m this weekend – down only six per cent from the previous weekend – taking its total earnings to $47m (£37.4m)

Additional reporting by Associated Press.

Thank you for registering

Please refresh the page or navigate to another page on the site to be automatically logged inPlease refresh your browser to be logged in